


Blackberry Promenade

by Kei (junjunkii)



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: M/M, abandoned work
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-15
Updated: 2017-07-15
Packaged: 2018-12-02 09:51:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,550
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11506923
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/junjunkii/pseuds/Kei
Summary: Bokuto's tattoos are never in the same place they were the day before, Kuroo's eyes glow with too much life, and Kenma is always looking at things no one else can see. Somehow, they are what keep Keiji together.In one whirlwind of a year, Keiji learns to love himself.The chaos that comes with associating himself with three of the most powerful magic-users in the world is just a bonus.





	Blackberry Promenade

Akaashi Keiji makes things grow. It's a fact of life. A lot of lives, actually, since he runs the ramshackle plant nursery on the corner of Wax and Ruthord.

Thing is, he's one of those with that green-thumb kind of magic. He's always been able to make plants grow like crazy. As a kid, he'd come home in the spring with the dandelion seeds caught in his hair bursting into yellow in the blink of an eye; he couldn't play in his own backyard without making the grass need to be mowed twice a day; and sometimes, if they were fresh enough, he could make the cherry tomatoes in his salad take root right there in the dining room table.

Keiji needed an outlet. So his moms started buying him plants, letting him use his own money to expand his garden once he had a rather sizable collection. He always had a soft spot for succulents and how quickly he could make them grow without dehydrating them. They were soft yet waxy, and when he had bad days he could be uncovered up in the attic, blanketed by twisting and twining coils of aloe vera.

Sometimes it got out of control. But he doesn't like to think about those times, and besides, he's got it down now.

The brambles blooming from his skull serve enough of a reminder.

But anyway. Now is not the time to be reminiscing about his childhood. Keiji's got a new neighbor across the street. Owl facts extraordinaire. Rather explosive. Headache-inducing, for sure, but so sweetly sincere Keiji hasn't been able to quite get enough of him.

Bokuto Kourarou. Newest employee of the local tattoo parlour, Catte Black, and a regular loiterer at Keiji's nursery, Aloe. Also hot. So hot. Like a tamale or something.

Keiji's never had a tamale.

He's also never had someone quite like Bokuto.

He does wish Bokuto would maybe buy something during his visits for once, instead of chattering on about his owl familiars and how wonderful they are with getting hard-to-find potions ingredients for him (it's his hobby, and he's very passionate about it). Bokuto chatters a lot. It's not something Keiji is necessarily used to, but he finds himself yearning for it when he's closed up for the night. Truthfully, he'd been rather lonely until Bokuto showed up- even in a huge city like this, friendships are hard for Keiji to find and maintain. Everyone just seems to demand so much more than Keiji is willing to give.

Bokuto, though... Bokuto is so easily satisfied it's almost alarming. All Keiji needs to do, he realizes quickly, is listen to him. Bokuto wilts when he's ignored, which is why, Keiji suspects, he spends so much time at the nursery, because Keiji loves listening to Bokuto talk. Could do it for hours at a time. Probably already has, actually.

There's just something grounding about the guy (even though his constantly windswept hair makes him look like he's about to take to the skies at a moment's notice). Something that Keiji has been quietly wanting and waiting for his entire life. He doesn't know what it is, just that he loves having Bokuto around, and wants to keep it that way for a long time.

One day Keiji finds himself at Catte Black on his day off. Konoha and Kozume, his only employees, had effectively shoved him back out the door when he had tried to enter (Kozume's telekinesis may or may not have been involved in that particular act).

"You _never_ take a break!" Konoha chided, crossing his arms and filling up the narrow doorway. "You're going to run yourself into the ground, Akaashi, come on. Go out and let loose a little!"

"I need to tend to my plants!" Keiji protested. A little shiver of unease squirmed low in his gut.

"You'll see them tonight when you come home," Konoha said, flippantly waving his hand at him. "Now shoo."

It's true, Keiji lives right above the nursery and sees his plants every single day, but he still felt out of his element. "At least let me get my wallet and things," he tried.

A black shoulder bag floated lazily over Konoha's head. "Here you go." Kozume's voice drifted out behind it.

Keiji tried to glare at him but a snickering Konoha was still all he could see. He shoved the strap over his shoulder and huffed. "Guess I'll go shop around." He rolled his eyes. The brambles twitching on the crown of his head felt itchy. He absently scratched off a tiny bud, and it immediately uncurled into a perfectly pink little blackberry flower in the palm of his hand.

Keiji froze. Konoha seemed to know what was up, and called over his shoulder, "Yo, Kozume! Get his hat!"

Keiji's floppy blue sunhat hurried out straight into his hands, and he gratefully smashed it onto his head, covering the mess his mistakes had planted in him. "Thank you," he sighed.

"Yeah, no problem." And now Konoha is watching him far too carefully, so Keiji abruptly turns heel and begins to walk along Wax, pretending to window shop but not having the slightest intention of doing so. He's distracted, wondering how his plants are doing with him so far away, if Konoha and Kozume are taking the utmost care of them, if there's going to be some unprecedented amount of customers and if he needs to be there and if his _plants_ -

He pauses in front of a glittering display of leopard-print lingerie with magic-powered, moving decorative wings on the back of the bra. Maybe Konoha was right, and he really does need to loosen up. He blinks. The panties two feet from his face morph into a tiger stripe pattern. Keiji wrinkles his nose. He probably doesn't need to be that loose. He keeps walking.

Unless... does he? What exactly is he looking for out here, if nothing more than a distraction? But he doesn't think morphing panties are exactly-

- _oh!_

Keiji nearly smacks himself in the face. How could he have been so stupid? Bokuto's right across from the nursery! Keiji can just go visit him!

He does a full 180, walking briskly back the way he came, almost running over someone's sniffy-nosed daughter in his haste. He doesn't apologize, because both of them take one look at the scars criss-crossing his face and hands and recoil.

The one-handed grip on his bag strap turns into two. _Just ignore it_ , he reminds himself firmly. _They don't know anything._

 

Keiji gets _almost_ a two-second glimpse of the sleek black-and-red interior of Catte Black before something very feathery and very angry launches itself at his sunhat.

He yelps and hastily scrabbles to grab at it with both hands, dropping to crouch in a tight ball on the floor at the same moment that someone screeches "JELLYBEAN!" at the top of their lungs.

Needless to say he is thoroughly disoriented by the time the shrieking mess of bird is removed from his head. Luckily, though, he doesn't seem to be hurt. His attacker apparently was more concerned with scaring him than doing him any actual harm.

"Jellybean, I _told_ you, you can't rush at someone just because they have a big hat, big hats are _not_ threatening-"

Keiji shakily stands up as someone chastises the irritably hooting bird and comes nearly face to face with none other than Bokuto Koutarou.

"And don't give me that look, I- oh!" Bokuto stops in the middle of his sentence, mouth hanging open. Then he excitedly straightens out his back, grinning wide- the barn owl squawks as it nearly tumbles off his gloved arm. He deftly dodges the wing thrusted straight at his nose. "Akaashi! What are you doing here?"

"Day off." Keiji hasn't let go of his hat, and won't quite look away from the owl either. "So this is the notorious Jellybean." He's heard a lot about her skittishness towards strangers. Bokuto said that she loves him, though.

She bites Bokuto's ear. He continues chattering as if this did not happen.

Keiji stares.

"Um. Akaashi? You still with me here?"

His ear is bleeding. "Shouldn't you get that taken care of?" Keiji asks, fairly concerned. He finally drops one hand to point at the injury.

"What?" Bokuto raises his free hand to pat at his ear, then brings his fingers, slick with blood, back to his line of sight. He blinks.

Then he's off all at once, forcibly shaking Jellybean off his arm and tearing away the thick leather to free both hands. " _Jelly!_ " he cries. "That's my bad ear and you know it!" He trips over the front desk, where Keiji is startled to see a man sitting back languidly in the rolling chair, feet crossed at the ankles and hanging over the edge of the dark cherrywood. Keiji didn't even notice him.

The man uncrosses his feet and slides open a drawer, tossing a small crinkled tube of something at Bokuto with a certain catlike grace. He doesn't even look, just keeps tapping away at his phone.

Bokuto catches it without looking either.

Keiji wonders exactly how prone Jellybean is to biting, or how prone Bokuto himself is to injury.

By the time Keiji tears his gaze away from the admittedly attractive man at the desk, who hasn't paid either of them the slightest actual attention, Bokuto has already slathered his ear in bright blue salve.

Keiji finds himself staring yet again. "Uh, what-?"

"Oh, the ointment?" Bokuto interrupts excitedly (he tosses it to the texting man, who catches it and shoves it back in the drawer- all without looking). "Kuroo helped me make it! He's an amazing chemist!"

"Stop, Bo, you're making me blush," Desk-Man drawls, finally looking up and grinning at the both of them. Oh, so _this_ is Kuroo. His mouth slants way over to one side and his eyes glitter a dangerous kind of gold. Keiji feels a shiver slip down his spine and straightens up, hyperaware of the nervous curl and release of the blossoms beneath his floppy blue hat.

"Good afternoon, Kuroo," Keiji greets evenly. "Bokuto speaks very highly of you." He's not lying. Bokuto squeaks loudly.

"Chill," Kuroo says, and first Keiji thinks it's a response to Bokuto's high-pitched exclamation, but then Kuroo locks gazes with him and raises his eyebrows. "Put the magic away, I'm not dangerous."

Keiji stiffens.

Bokuto looks curiously between the two of them. "Akaashi? Kuroo? What's going on?"

Kuroo narrows his eyes. "What's under your hat?"

Keiji inhales sharply. Everything around him seems to redden and dim. He can feel how tightly he's gripping his bag strap, can feel it digging into his palms. But he can't feel the pain of it.

His scars _buzz_.

Bokuto immediately recognizes the wide-eyed panic of a cornered Akaashi Keiji and firmly steps in between them, crossing his arms and staring down at Kuroo. "Hey," he says. Sharp. "Stop intimidating Akaashi."

Kuroo lifts his eyes to Bokuto's resolute expression, then drifts away back down to his phone. "My bad."

Keiji shoots a glare at him and scoffs under his breath.

Kuroo looks back up, running a hand through his already messed-up hair. "I am sorry," he says, and finally sounds sincerely apologetic. "I'm a bit suspicious by nature. Had quite a few run-ins with unusually powerful magicians in the past, probably severely traumatized by it, blah blah blah." He glances at a particularly deep gash right under Keiji's left eye. "I'm just trying to keep everyone safe here. You understand, right?"

"I do," Keiji says quietly, and breaths out slowly, loosening his white-knuckled grip on his bag. "And unfortunately this is not something I can just put away." Kuroo's eyes are far too bright. He doesn't blink. " _You understand, right?_ "

Kuroo seems almost surprised before snorting and swiveling around to finally stand up. He's tall. "I like this guy," he declares.

And that's that.

Another employee slips into the front room, peeling off plastic gloves and absently clicking a tongue piercing against their teeth. Keiji can hear it clearly from well over five feet away.

"Ah, you must be Akaashi Keiji," they say, looking him up and down. "Bo won't shut up about you."

Akaashi flushes. "Is- is that so," he tries to say calmly, but it comes out a bit staggered. Tongue-tied.

"T-Terushima!" Bokuto stutters, red-faced.

The employee- Terushima- ignores him. "You here for a tattoo? Piercing? Tour? Boyfriend?"

"I'm just visiting Bokuto on my day off," Keiji says.

"So boyfriend then," Terushima concludes. Keiji opens his mouth to protest but they bulldoze right over him. "I'll give you a tour then, if you're going to be visiting more often you might as well know your way around."

Akaashi opens and closes his mouth, not sure which point to refute first.

Kuroo rolls his eyes. "Just humour them, would ya? They want to show off their work to you."

Akaashi looks to him hesitantly. "Why?"

Kuroo grins. "Well, you're pretty cute, aren't you?"

Keiji freezes, mouth clacking shut. Then he turns on his heel and storms right out the door.

It swings shut.

There is silence.

" _What did you do_ that _for?_ " Bokuto wails.

"I didn't know he was going to react like that!" Kuroo snaps, but he's already opened the door and is making his way down the sidewalk to where Keiji is stalking away with the tensest back muscles Kuroo has ever seen.

"Akaashi- hey- Keiji, hold up, I'm sorry if I upset you-" Kuroo reaches out to grab Keiji's shoulder but thinks better of it, and decides to swiftly step in front of him to get his attention instead. "Hey."

Keiji immediately stops. He won't look up, the brim of his hat covering his face completely. "What do you want?" His voice is wracked with the tiniest of tremors.

Kuroo immediately feels terrible. "Hey, listen, I obviously said something that didn't really... well, I upset you, and I don't want Bo's day to be ruined because I fucked up and chased you off." He reaches out hesitantly, and, seeing no resistance, gently touches his hand to Keiji's elbow. "I am sorry. I don't think I've given you a very accurate first impression of me. In fact you probably think I'm an asshole."

"Just a bit," Keiji huffs, but he lifts his head, and scuffs his dirt-dusted boots on the cool gray pavement.

Kuroo exhales heavily, partly in frustration with himself, but mostly in relief. "Let me start over, alright? Back in the parlour?"

Keiji lets himself breath for a few moments, takes the time to ground himself in his surroundings. The chatter of passers-by as they mill from shop to shop, the hum and buzz of brooms flying overhead, the low whistle of a lazily wandering breeze. The smell of the crepe stand across the street, fresh berries and heavy cream and golden frying batter, rich and sweet. The contrasting chill of spring on his nose and cheeks.

Kuroo's eyes are so, so bright.

"You're housing something, aren't you?" Keiji tilts his head to the side, speaking just loudly enough so only Kuroo can hear him.

Kuroo mirrors him, bangs falling in front of one eye. He grins. "Am I?"

And just like that, they're on a level field again.

**Author's Note:**

> abandoned work


End file.
